An Elizabeth Warren race for president?

Wednesday

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren won re-election Nov. 6 in what could be a warmup for 2020.

The Cambridge Democrat handily beat challengers Geoff Diehl, a Republican, and Shiva Ayyadurai, an independent, with The Associated Press calling the race moments after polls closed.

The results give Warren the opportunity to serve at least another six years, but the senior senator from Massachusetts may have other plans before her second term ends.

“Remember, your work isn’t done,” she told a crowd of supporters during her victory speech. “Let us declare that our fight is not over until we have transformed our government into one that works not just for the rich and powerful, but works for everybody.”

In September, Warren said she would take a “hard look” at running for president in 2020, and she used much of her re-election campaign to attack President Donald Trump.

The strategy was possible in part because her Republican opponent, Diehl, closely aligned his campaign to Trump. Warren, through Diehl, criticized the president and his policies, along with his inflammatory remarks made in the past about immigrants, sexual harassment and white nationalism.

“That is not leadership. That is not going to make us a stronger America,” Warren said during a debate hosted by WCVB-TV on Oct. 30.

Where Trump’s name and policies played a central role in the campaign, however, the president himself was markedly absent. Leading up to Election Day, Trump threw his support behind Republicans running for office across the country, but he never reciprocated Diehl’s support in Massachusetts. Diehl was the co-chairman for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in Massachusetts.

The Diehl campaign declined to comment on the lack of presidential support.

"Unfortunately, we came up short on this final goal, but I’m proud of the honest and principled campaign that we ran,” Diehl said during a concession speech in Whitman.

Trump’s absence, however, was not lost on Ayyadurai, who billed himself as the real “Trumper” in the race.

“The president has endorsed every Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018, except one: dirty, dirty, dirty #DirtyDiehl!” Ayyadurai tweeted on Election Day.

Ayyadurai also criticized Warren during the campaign, calling her the “Fake Indian,” a dig on the senator’s claim of Native American heritage. The name-calling echoes a strategy by Trump, who uses nicknames to mock political opponents.

The president calls Warren “Pocahontas,” and there’s some evidence to suggest the playground tactic may be working.

Axios on Nov. 4 released a survey showing how Trump would match up against every woman considered a possible Democratic opponent in 2020. Each woman, including former First Lady Michelle Obama and superstar Oprah Winfrey, would beat the president, according to the survey.

But Warren -- also included on the list -- only held a marginal lead over Trump compared to most of the other women, which Axios reported was likely a result of Trump’s criticism.

“Warren, the woman struggling the most against Trump right now, chose to release her genetic testing after the president called her ‘Pocahontas’ for two years and questioned her claims of Native American heritage,” according to the report. “All 2020 hopefuls need to brace for the effect of Trump’s name calling and personal attacks.”

The back-and-forth at this point amounts to nothing more than political jockeying. And if Warren does announce her candidacy for president, there’s no guarantee she would win the nomination in what’s likely to become a crowded Democratic primary.

Nonetheless, Warren’s rhetoric during her re-election, along with her ever-growing national profile, continues to paint a picture of what a Warren-Trump race might look like. And with the midterm elections now in the rearview mirror, 2020 looks a lot closer.

“We have come so far together. We have fought together, cried together, resisted together and sure as hell persisted together. But tonight we send a message to the world -- we’re just getting started,” Warren said.

Eli Sherman is an investigative and in-depth reporter at Wicked Local and GateHouse Media. Email him at esherman@wickedlocal.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.